Image: AU Burns Canberra

Description: Statue of Robert Burns in Canberra, Australia. Sculptor was John S. Davie (1862-1955); The foundery was Chiurazzi, Napoli (Naples). It was erected in 1935 at the corner of Canberra Avenue and National Circuit, Forrest, where then stood the Burns Club. The plinth bears the words: Burns Born 1759 - Died 1790 O wad some power the giftie gie us to see ourselves as they see us It wad frae monie a blunder free us an foolish notion Behind the statue are four friezes, bearing the a likeness to Burns' works with quotes below (L-R): But now your brow is beld john, your locks are like the snaw, but blessings on you frosty bow, John Anderson mu Jo But mousie thou art no thy lane, in proving foresight may be vain, the best laid plans o mice and men, canc aft a cley Kings may be blest but Tam was clorious O'er a the ills o life victorious From scenes like these old Scotia's granseur springs That makes her loved at home revered abroad Status of the Inscription The four-line transcription stated above for the text on the plinth bears a misleading resemblance to standard versions of the widely quoted-from Burns poem "To a Louse". The plinth transcription's 2nd line to see ourselves as they see us corresponds to the typical Scottish-dialect version to see oursels as ithers see us which is sometimes quoted (even when the first line is left in a Scots version) with "ithers" translated to "others", and less often with "oursels" also translated (to "ourselves") The final stanza (among the 8) of "To A Louse, On Seeing One On A Lady's Bonnet, At Church" has six lines; the first two are the most often quoted. The final stanza, in Scots, reads (per the Project Gutenberg transcription of Poems And Songs Of Robert Burns) O wad some Power the giftie gie us To see oursels as ithers see us! It wad frae mony a blunder free us, An' foolish notion: What airs in dress an' gait wad lea'e us, An' ev'n devotion! To name a few, the following sources match that, verbatim et literatim (and in fact punctuation), as to at least the first four lines: http://www.robertburns.org/works/97.shtml http://www.electricscotland.com/burns/louse.html http://www.everypoet.com/archive/poetry/robert_burns/Robert_Burns_Poems_To_A_Louse.htm http://www.famous-poems.biz/Robert_Burns/To-A-Louse-top-ten-poems-by-Robert-Burns.html http://www.gutenberg.org/files/1279/1279-h/1279-h.htm#2H_4_0107 http://www.bartleby.com/6/99.html and as to the line in question, Google results, as of 2008 June 4, are 414 for "to see oursels as ithers see us". and in contrast, 8 for "to see ourselves as they see us" burns "some power" OR "some pow'r". of which five are like "forces us Latin Americans to see ourselves as they see us" and the remaining three are from WikiMedia sites, in connection with this image: es:Escocés (lengua germánica)#Literatura, Image:AU Burns Canberra.jpg, and Image talk:AU Burns Canberra.jpg.
Title: AU Burns Canberra
Credit: photo by User:Peter Ellis at en.wikipedia
Author: User:Peter Ellis at en.wikipedia
Usage Terms: Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0
License: CC-BY-SA-3.0
License Link: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/
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